Does Digital Finance Improve Corporate ESG Performance? An Intermediary Role Based on Financing Constraints

Abstract

Under the new trend of digitalization leading the era, the popularity and development of digital finance have become key components in promoting better corporate practices and investment activities such as social responsibility fulfillment. Against the backdrop of the government’s advocacy of high-quality economic development, this article uses data from China’s A-share-listed companies from 2011–2021, based on the Digital Finance Index of Peking University and ESG rating data of China Securities Corporation, in order to analyze the impact of the level of digital finance development on corporate ESG performance in China, and to explore the paths and heterogeneity of such impacts. The results of the empirical analysis show that the level of digital finance development has a significant positive impact on corporate ESG performance, with financing constraints playing a mediating role in this path. In the heterogeneity analysis, we find that this impact shows a more significant effect among non-state-owned enterprises as well as enterprises in the central and western regions. The findings of the article’s empirical tests show that the continuous development of digital finance helps enterprises enable social responsibility, which has certain implications for the synergy between financial institutions, government departments, and corporate entities to promote high-quality economic development.